allergic to ugliness

On the weekend, I took my youngest daughter to the Chemist to get some medicine. 

We walk into the chemist, hand over our script to be filled and wait. 

The lady behind the counter asks me, 'Is you daughter allergic to anything?'

I reply, "No."

My daughter however quickly replies, 'Yes. Ugliness.'

I look at my daughter speechless.

What in the world? Where did that come from?

I say a silent prayer of thanks that the chemist was empty, smile at the lady behind the counter and quick-step my daughter out to the car for a serious chat.

According to my daughter, being allergic to ugliness means you don't like to be around anyone who is ugly. 

It is at this moment I start to question my parenting techniques and wonder where I went wrong so early! 

We sit, we talk and discuss the fact that God doesn't create anyone ugly. 

There may be people who look a little different than you and I but ugly is not a word we use in our home and is not a word we use to describe other people or ourselves.

We talk some more, we frown at each other, we both realise there is more to be discussed and I start to feel the need for a serious sugar fix come on!

It is at this moment I start to realise that I am coming down with something.

The source is that I am becoming a little allergic to my own children.

I ponder what the lady behind the counter at the chemist will say when I ask her for some medicine to stop me from having a reaction to my children and what comes out of their mouth!

Sigh! The joys of motherhood!

As a parent I believe it is important to educate our children about the dangers of striving to be pretty above being so called ugly in life. It is also important to educate our children about how to deal with people who may look a little different to us.

I read a great blog post by Carly yesterday about preparing children to meet people with visible differences. Check it out here.

For me, I still have a long way to go on educating our children and overcoming my own allergic reaction to them :)

Order tyres online with Tyreright

So I am sitting in my lounge room and my husband walks in and tells me we need the tyres replaced on our car. This is never the type of news I like to hear and immediately we start talking about how much money we have in our car budget. Yes, we have a car budget to cover such costs and if you don't have a car budget and you own a car...I highly recommend you starting one...even if it is only a couple of dollars a week...it makes a big difference for little car emergencies that arise.

So we check our car budget and find we are just short of the amount needed to replace all of our tyres. We have a quick conversation and make a plan to save a little extra to make sure we are being safety conscious as it is important to have a safe car, especially with the precious cargo (cherubs) that we drive around.

The other part of the conversation we have together is how we hate spending money on such expenses and also how on earth are we going to fit this into our current schedule to get this important task done!

Several hours later I am sitting at my computer and 'bing' in comes an email from Tyreright asking me if I would be interested in writing a review of their online service in exchange for tyres for our car.

My first thought is, 'No Way! Are you kidding me! We need new tyres!"

Then I think...who wants to read about tyres on my blog?
Then I think...everybody needs new tyres at some time and surely they could relate to our experience!
Then I think...surely I have a blog to help our family out at such a time as this :)

So then, the Seven Cherubs family discovered Tyreright for the very first time.

One of the first things that appealed to me about Tyreright was that I could do all of the ordering online...in the comfort of my own home...at the time that suited me the best. We went to the Tyreright website to find the right tyres for our car and it was a very simple process.

You can either do a search by tyre size, OR if you prefer you can search by car. It’s not a problem if you don’t know your tyre size, you can work it out by looking up the specifications for your car.

If you decide to search by tyre size you can compare the tyre characteristics on the website. Every tyre is scored out of 10 on five core characteristics: Handling; Wet Weather Handling; Comfort; Durability; and Fuel Economy. This is meant to give a better understanding of the total value of the tyre you’re choosing.

We did a search by our car and there are 4 steps to take to make your booking.
1. Select the Manufacturer of your car,
2. The year of your car,
3. Select the model and grade of your car and
4. Select certain characteristics you are looking for with your car to match the type of tyre you want.

If you do happen to get stuck there is a 'Chat Now' option with a LiveChat run by Tyreright to give you support on the website during business hours in addition to phone support and a social media team.

We ordered our tyres online and then made a booking to have them fitted. We selected the closest Tyreright store to us and then all we then had to do was turn up at our appointed time and get our new tyres!

We met Graham at Tyreright (who has been working with tyres for more than twenty years), who was very friendly and gave us some good advice. He told us we had ordered the wrong tyres for our car (the previous owner of our car had made a mistake recording information and we had ordered what was recorded) and Graham helped us to get the ‘tyreright’. This was a smooth process for us and we appreciated having the right tyres for our car.

Another part of the Tyreright service I was really impressed with was the '30 Minute Guarantee'. If you make a booking for one of the guaranteed timeslots, they’ll fit your tyres in 30 minutes or give you $30 cashback! (Note: does not apply to additional services like wheel alignments.)

Also if you are out and in need of help? Tyreright mobile site is fully functional, lightning fast and transactional. Whether you want to buy on the go, or look up your nearest store, it’s fast and easy to use. I loved that this process saved us a lot of time and we were in and out fast. There was no lengthy conversation about what sort of tyres we needed to get and no lengthy time waiting in a car service centre.

Tyreright are giving a promotional offer for Seven Cherubs readers. If you are in need of new tyres and want to make a booking through Tyreright you can receive 5% off by entering the code: SevenCherubs.   

I know this is not the most exciting blog post to read but it is very practical. I like sharing ways to make life easier for families and I found this really did make life easier for our family. Also I am grateful that we are now ahead in our car budget because Tyreright contacted us :)

You can also connect with Tyreright on facebook and twitter.

my digital detox and deleting my facebook account

Recently my husband strategically placed an article in the paper about having a digital detox on our kitchen bench so I would see it. Well, I have to admit I haven't asked him if he did or not but I can tell it was him :) 

I am not a fan of strategically placed articles but decided to give it a read. After reading the article I was shocked to clearly see that I was in great need of having a digital detox in my life! 

I guess this is the part where I thank my husband..... {insert crickets chirping}

Just joking....thanks sweetheart :)

Yes, I like to check my email, pinterest, facebook, Instagram and other social media links at night before I bed and it often leads to me going to bed later than I planned. 

Yes, I had reached a stage where I was resorting to posting my problems as a facebook status and reading replies instead of sorting them out myself and talking to someone face to face.

Yes, I had my phone constantly on me and whenever we went anywhere I would spend my time catching up on emails etc. instead of appreciating the scenery around me.

Yes, I reached a stage where I couldn't even take the time out to exercise because I found I was so bored without my phone.

So...after accepting that I needed to make some changes...I gave myself a digital detox.

Firstly, I deleted my personal facebook account. I went from 700+ friends and family down to just three. In order to run my Seven Cherubs facebook page, I need a facebook profile, so I created one with only three connections...my husband and children. 

Now when I log into facebook all I see is my Seven Cherubs page. So very different and I now spend hardly anytime on facebook. There is nothing else to see!

There is also no use in sharing a status update. There is no-one to see it! I avoid being dramatic myself and also avoid the drama of other people. I am left with only having face to face conversations in my life. I need more of those than I do social media connected conversations.

I also deleted a bunch of apps off my phone so I am no longer distracted with wanting to spend time on them. 

As a mother I am needed by my family to avoid as many distractions as much as I can. I find there are so many distractions around us that will draw us away from our family and their needs. I really right now need less distractions in my life. I need to focus and to put my family first more.

Since I have given myself this digital detox I can't even begin to share with you how much I have been able to do around my home. I have seriously cleaned out every room in my home, de-cluttered every cupboard and even changed rooms around. I had no idea just how much time I was wasting away on the internet.

It has been a revelation to me and a greatly needed change.

My relationships with my children and husband have been improving and I am feeling a lot happier within myself as I am no longer tied to facebook. 

I know this is not for everyone but for me it has been really worth doing.

the day I took a cricket bat to the television

I am passionate about parenting. I am also the first to admit that some days I may get a little too passionate or emotional if you wish about being a parent. Compared to other parents I may not be extreme but according to my cherubs...there have been a few moments where they feel I have taken it too far!

One such moment was the day I decided to take a cricket bat to the television. You see, I am not afraid of standing alone as a parent when circumstances are required and will do whatever it takes to keep my family on track. Hence, the cricket bat :)

On this such day I had really, plain and simply, just had enough. I noticed that every weekend all our family did was sit in front of the television. No helping out around the house, no taking showers, no wanting to eat at the table, no wanting to talk to anyone else, no wanting to help in any way what-so-ever and I was over it! 

I was tired of getting up every Saturday morning and of carrying the load myself. So I decided to take drastic action. That television had to go!

It was one of those moments as a parent where you have a choice: let the anger building up inside you rage for a while and then settle down or let the anger inside you spur you to action and then face the consequences later. 

I decided to choose that later option: action.

In pondering what to do I remembered a church article I had read about an inspiring woman Kathleen Eyring. This is what she did:

“My brother and I were in front of the TV one Saturday night around midnight,” says Henry J. “A tawdry comedy show that we shouldn’t have been watching was on. The basement room was dark except for the light from the television. Without warning, Mother walked in. She was wearing a white, flowing nightgown and carrying a pair of shears. Making no sound, she reached behind the set, grabbed the cord, and gathered it into a loop. She then inserted the shears and cut the cord with a single stroke. Sparks flew and the set went dead, but not before Mother had turned and glided out of the room.” 

Unnerved, Henry J. headed to bed. His innovative brother, however, cut a cord from a broken vacuum and connected it to the television. Soon the boys had plopped back down in front of the television, hardly missing any of their show. 

“Mother, however, got the last laugh,” Henry J. says. “When we came home from school the next Monday, we found the television set in the middle of the floor with a huge crack through the thick glass screen. We immediately suspected Mother. When confronted, she responded with a perfectly straight face: ‘I was dusting under the TV, and it slipped.’ ”

Now I am not as graceful and not as self controlled as Kathleen but I am just as passionate! So with these thoughts in my mind and anger bubbling up inside of me - I set off with cricket bat in hand to take on the television. 

You can imagine the surprise of my family when they are all comfortably sitting on our lounge watching a movie and there appears Mum out of nowhere in front of the television wielding a cricket bat ready to smash that television to pieces. 

{much to my disappointment I couldn't find the hammer anywhere so I had to go with a cricket bat...it worked out so much more effective anyway. it was larger and sure got the attention of everyone!}

Now a normal person would have handled the situation in a calm, controlled manner. Me...on this day I let it all out...there were tears involved and direct, clear words shared that this television had to go and it had to go right then and right now.

My husband, who was just as shocked as everyone else, quickly got up and removed the television from the lounge room and placed it outside of our house. Sadly, there was no opportunity for me to smash that thing but the message was clearly understood that there was no longer going to be a television in our home.

All of my children quietly filed out of the room. Several of them came and gave me a hug as they could see I was really upset and we slowly moved on from that moment into our day.

Now that it has been a while since that dramatic event, I have been loving the feel in our home. There is more communication, there are more games being played together as a family and there is more family time happening around our kitchen table.

I feel really good about the decision I made to remove the television. It was the right thing to do for our family. 

What I can also see now is that I really didn't handle the situation very well and I am happy to admit that. I could have been more in control of my emotions, I could have worded by thoughts better and I could have talked to my husband about it first! 

Being a parent is a learning experience. We learn a lot about ourselves as we parent. 

I sure discovered a lot about myself with this recent television experience and will keep these thoughts in mind next time I decided to go a little crazy protecting my family...

Because....there will be a next time :)

the dream of a home with a blue roof

For many years now I have had the dream of living in a home with a blue roof. Kind of weird you may be thinking...and yes I do have to admit that I don't know of any other person who has a dream associated with what the colour of their roof is...well, let me share with you the reason why.

Blue is my absolute favourite colour ever. I simply love it. It makes me happy. But, there is a special reason why I have always wanted to extend that colour loving to the roof of my own home. When Matt and I were married fifteen years ago, we were married in the Sydney Australia Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This is what the temple looks like below:

Can you see what colour roof the temple has??? That's right, blue. I fell in love with that building the first time I saw it. I remember thinking...no way...it has a blue roof! A dream was planted in my heart right at that moment to one day have a home with a blue roof just the same.

This is the place where I made a commitment to my husband and to my future children to love them forever and also a commitment to God to be the best wife, mother and person I can be throughout my life. It is a special place to me full of wonderful memories.

As a reminder of that commitment and those wonderful memories I really, really wanted to have a home that had a blue roof to daily inspire me. Now I do know that changing the colour of your roof is not going to make that much difference to what happens inside your home but every day I drive into the driveway and see the blue roof on my home and I absolutely love it.

It inspires me and reminds me of who I am striving to be when I step into my front door.
Some days I need that little extra reminder to be better.

I know for some people this may seem a little extreme and over the top but for me I love having a home that reflects family is all area's that I can. Painting a roof, which really needed to be painted anyway, is a small way I can symbolise the temple in our home.

I also loved that we were able to involve our children in helping to make this happen.
They thought it was great fun painting the extra touch up area's around our home.

Also, I have no idea why my daughter is wearing white pants whilst she is painting.
She seems pretty happy about it though! Great teamwork kids!

A big thanks to my wonderful husband who helped make this dream come true for me and also to my children who thought that choosing blue out of every other colour available was the best choice. Love a unity family all focused on the colour blue :)

not following the crowd

I have never been one to follow the crowd.

I find it too boring and restricting. 

With this in mind I have decided to make a few changes here on my blog.

Lately, when I wake up in the morning, I have not felt like writing. This has been a shock to me as I love to write and I do it every day. It has taken me weeks of pondering to work out why I have been feeling this way. 

I realised it was because with my blog I have been following the crowd. This is not my style and way I like to do things. I do feel I already do things my own way by openly and honestly writing about large family living, depression, post natal depression, sexual abuse and many other topics people are too scared to write about. 

But lately, I have been dreading the thought of putting myself out there. Mainly, because of criticism. 

I do know that if you are going to put yourself out there, you need to expect to be criticised for your thoughts. It is also becoming a normal part of having a blog these days. 

Over the years I have become accustomed to receiving criticism. It is just that lately, I have had enough of it. I just don't need that crap in my life. So at first I thought I would simply stop my blog and writing. Then I realised I don't need to do that. I can keep writing and do my own thing in my own way.

So I have decided to not follow the crowd and am turning comments off my blog. This way I can put myself out there, still write how I want to write in an open and honest way and my blog can stay a positive space. 

I also know that most people who read my blog are other Mum's at home and I don't want them to feel that they need to comment on my blog every day as they are already time poor. I appreciate everyone who reads my blog and who has taken the time to comment and to share their own thoughts and feelings. You have made me laugh and cry so many days.

Most people who read my blog already comment on my facebook page instead of here anyway.

Is this a risk? Yes. 

Does it feel right for me, Yes. 

Will people be upset? Yes.

Right now this feels right so I am going with it. I have also changed my blog header to get back into family writing instead of working on branding myself with a logo and image. I have a lot of things I want to write about in relation to parenting and want a more family feel and focus. 

With more of my children heading into the teenage years, I want to cut back to spend more time being available for them during this challenging and confusing time of life. Now to get back into family living and writing......

How is your parenting self esteem?

Last year I wrote a series of blog posts about the self esteem of a mother/parent.

In the last couple of months my parenting self esteem has taken a battering.

So I have decided to revisit my list of my tips on improving your self esteem as a parent.

You might find them helpful too.

Parenting is a tough gig some days and weeks.

Here are my tips for improving your parenting self esteem:

1. Do not take words or comments seriously

2. Look for your strengths during your day

3. Over over-exaggerating a situation

4. Ask for praise

5. Be realistic about yourself

If we can find and see good about ourselves, our self esteem will improve greatly and we will feel so much happier about life and our parenting role. Wishing you many moments of good self esteem and self love.